NIAGARA - Key Persons
David Whalen founded Disability Awareness Training (DAT) in September 2004. He specializes in training law enforcement, emergency responders, human service providers, public, private, and school transportation, corporations and businesses, places of worship, and educators. The training is designed... Read more →
Job Titles:
- Dean College of Education
- Member of the Board of the Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education
Dr. Chandra J. Foote began at Niagara University in the summer of 1996 and progressed to the level of full professor in the Department of Teacher Education. Dr. Foote has served as the dean of the College of Education since 2015. Dr. Foote is an educational psychologist with special focus on learning, motivation, and assessment. Dr. Foote is also a certified elementary teacher in New York State with administrative experience in head start programming.
Dr. Foote became a member of the board of the Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education (AILACTE) in 2018, and a member of the board of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) in 2021. She also serves on the boards of the Niagara Falls Library, and USA Niagara Development Corporation.
Job Titles:
- Member of the American Philosophical Association
- Professor
Dr. James J. Delaney joined the Philosophy Department in 2004 after receiving his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo that same year. He works primarily in normative ethics, with related interests in the history of philosophy and biomedical ethics.
He has published articles in the American Catholic Philosophical Association's Annual Proceedings, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Inquiry, For the Defense, National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, The American Journal of Bioethics, The Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, The American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience, and The Journal of Medical Ethics.
Additionally, Dr. Delaney has written two books on the 18th century enlightenment philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau: Rousseau and the Ethics of Virtue (Continuum Press, 2006) and Starting with Rousseau (Continuum Press, 2009).
Dr. James J. Delaney is a member of the American Philosophical Association, the American Catholic Philosophical Association, and the Rousseau Association. He also serves on the NU Premed Advisory Committee, the Institutional Research Board, and the Animal Ethics Committee.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Assistant Professor of Political Science
Mr. Kevin A. Hinkley is a graduate of Niagara University and Harvard Law School. Prof. Hinkley is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Director of the University's Pre-Law Advisement Program. Hinkley also serves as a Faculty Advisor for the Justice Houses Living-Learning Community.
Previously, Hinkley served as Niagara University's General Counsel from 2017 to 2019. In that role, Hinkley was the senior official responsible for managing the University's legal affairs, providing legal counsel to the Board of Trustees, the President, and senior staff, overseeing litigation, and developing legal advice for all sectors of the University.
Before his appointment as General Counsel, Prof. Hinkley spent more than two years as a member of Niagara's faculty, serving as an Instructor and Senior Lecturer in the Departments of Political Science and Criminology and Criminal Justice, and in the University's Writing 100 Program.
Before returning to Niagara in 2015, Hinkley practiced law at Webster Szanyi LLP and Lippes Mathias Wexler Friedman LLP in Buffalo, where he represented numerous healthcare providers, medical device companies, a nonprofit medical research institute, U.S. and international automotive companies, Native American-owned businesses, and a wide range of corporations and individuals involved in civil and criminal litigation. Hinkley previously served as a law clerk to Judge Raymond W. Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and as an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Washington, DC.
In recognition of his pro bono contributions - including representing an imprisoned civil rights plaintiff - Hinkley was honored as 2011 Empire State Counsel and named to the Capital Pro Bono High Honor Roll. Hinkley has served as Education Director for the Charles S. Desmond American Inn of Court, and he was selected for the Super Lawyers Upstate New York Rising Stars List in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
Prof. Hinkley's research and teaching interests include mental health law, healthcare law and policy, constitutional law, civil rights, law and technology, utopia and dystopia, and environmental law, among others.
Job Titles:
- Professor / Pre - Health Advisor
Dr. Mark A. Gallo obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the University of Pittsburgh. He then obtained a Master of Science degree in Biochemistry from the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, where he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Norman Curthoys analyzing transcriptional control of many key liver and kidney enzymes, especially those that are affected by chronic and acute metabolic acidosis.
Dr. Gallo then went to Cornell University where he studied under Robert P. Mortlock. It was there where he was introduced to the world of microbes. His thesis research involved the analysis of novel metabolic pathways for the degradation of five carbon sugars in the Enterobacteriaceae. His studies also included studies of "evolution in the test tube."
Dr. Gallo then went on to a post-doctoral position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in C. Richard Hutchinson's lab, where he studied the genes necessary for the synthesis of daunorubicin/doxorubicin/adriamycin. These valuable anti-tumor agents are synthesized by Streptomyces peucetius. While in Wisconsin, he was also on the faculty for the Biology Honor's BioCore program.
Dr. Gallo has several research interests. He continues to work with Streptomyces. His students have produced a low-density microarray, corresponding to key genes of many major secondary metabolite production pathways as well as traditional housekeeping genes and other regions along the chromosome. Dr. Gallo is interested in exploring synteny in the chromosome in the genus Streptomyces and examining the location of secondary metabolite genes in this diverse family of organisms.
For the past several years Dr. Gallo has been investigating the genetic composition and most notably the antibiotic resistance profile of Staphylococci from cattle and white tail deer.;; Mastitis is a major problem in the dairy industry and Staph infection is one of the primary causes.; It is costly to the farm as the cow must be taken out of production for treatment, and unfortunately it is not always successful, resulting in the loss of the animal.
Dr. Gallo has been active in the scholarship of teaching and learning. He is a member of the American Society for Microbiology Scholars in Residence program and has continued to create favorable learning environments for students of all ages. He has a long distinguished record of hosting science camps for students and teachers from the K-12 community and is currently the chair of the K-12 committee for the American Society for Microbiology. In addition, Dr. Gallo has frequently presented at the National Association for Biology Teachers and the National Science Teachers Association annual meetings.
In his spare time, Dr. Gallo has become a landowner. Along the way, he has become quite the barn collector, in that he has begun to disassemble several old timber frame barns from various distant locations that he intends to re-erect with the intention of sharing the beauty of these old buildings with anyone who wants to see them. He may try his hand at making wine too as his land has several acres of grapes although he can't use his surname for the winery for obvious reasons!
Current Research
Dr. Mark A. Gallo is involved in two major projects that both deal directly with antibiotics.
Job Titles:
- Senior Scientist
- Professor
Dr. Mary P. McCourt is a senior scientist with extensive experience in the implementation of new laboratories, management of technical, professional, faculty, research, legal, architectural and administrative staff. Her critical expert areas include computational chemistry and molecular modeling, cancer-targeted drug design and structural biology with emphasis on lipids.
There are two main areas of research interest in Dr. McCourt's lab. The first area concerns the development of Cholestosome TM technology and the second area concerns urine based biomarker analysis for diagnostic screens focused on both Breast Cancer as well as Alzheimer's disease. In addition, Dr. McCourt has started a company, MMC Lipid Bioservices, which is concerned with optimization of the formulation technology for Cholestosome TM.
Dr. McCourt brings research experience and expertise in
Dr. Susan E. Mason joined the Niagara University psychology faculty in September of 1979, after serving on the faculty at Buffalo State College (1977-1978) and the faculty at West Virginia University (1978-1979). She served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Niagara University from 1987 to 1997 and as vice president for academic affairs from 1997 to 2002.
Job Titles:
- FRDAT Principal Investigator, Provost Niagara University
Dr. Ireland has been teaching at Niagara University in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice since 1996 and was the Chair of the Department from 2002-2012. During the 2012-2013 academic year he served as the Associate Dean for the College of Arts and Sciences. He is currently the Dean...
Dr. Virginia Glazier joined the Biology department at Niagara University in 2017. She received her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Rochester in the Pediatric Infectious Disease division.
Dr. William H. Cliff obtained his Bachelor's degree and Ph.D. from Cornell University. He joined the faculty at Niagara University in 1992. He is presently a professor in the Department of Biology. He teaches courses in human anatomy and physiology, comparative animal physiology, pharmacology, cell biology and natural history. In addition, he serves as the Pre-Health Adviser for the University. He has also served as chairperson of the Committee for College Teaching and Learning, and the Task Force on Active and Integrative Learning. He is a visiting professor at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics.
Dr. Cliff is a Carnegie Scholar at the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and a member of Project Kaleidoscope's Faculty for the 21st century. He has a long standing interest in how case studies help students learn the biomedical sciences and his papers on case-based teaching and learning have appeared in Advances in Physiology Education and the Journal of College Science Teaching. He has been a regular contributor to the annual summer workshops sponsored by the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, an investigative member of the Physiology Education Research Consortium, and a workshop facilitator at the Biology Scholars Program. He has been invited to give seminars and to lead workshops on case-based teaching and learning at the annual meetings of the American Physiological Society and the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society. He serves on the editorial board of Advances in Physiology Education.
Current Research
Dr. William H. Cliff investigates how active and integrative approaches to learning impact student understanding of biology. In particular, he has examined the influence of case-based learning on conceptual change and misconception repair in physiology. He routinely uses concept inventories, concept mapping and structured Interviews to assess student learning. His work has been supported by awards from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Physiological Society. He is a co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation funded project that seeks to define and assess the core principles of undergraduate physiology.
Job Titles:
- Outreach Program Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant to the President
Dr. Judith A. Merkle is a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur from Cincinnati. She holds a M.A. degree from the University of Notre Dame, South Bend and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Theology from the University of St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, Canada. Dr. Merkle teaches in both ethics and theology and has a special interest in the relationship between church and culture. Dr. Merkle is a full professor in the Department of Religious Studies.